Saydnaya prison in Syria, the scene of the regime’s worst abuses, was liberated by rebels from the HTS group. Stories from associations and former prisoners describe the hell experienced by thousands of men and women.
Prison hell. On the night of Saturday December 7 to Sunday December 8, 2024, Syrian rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group – who ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad – liberated one of the regime’s prisons, that of Saydnaya, located a few dozen kilometers north of Damascus. Built in 1987, this penitentiary establishment is seen as a symbol of the worst abuses by the forces of the former Syrian president. It is made up of two buildings, the first called “white” for soldiers of the Syrian army accused of lack of loyalty to the regime. A second “red” dedicated to the imprisonment of civilians. If the arrival of the rebels made it possible to free hundreds of people, including women and children, Saydnaya was the scene, for many years, of unspeakable atrocities.
“We emasculated children aged 13, Saydnaya was a human butcher”
In a report published in 2022, the Association of Saydnaya Detainees and Disappeared (ADMSP) estimates that 30,000 prisoners were tortured to death, or executed, between 2011 and 2018 within the prison grounds. Bodies that were never returned to the families. A new report of the NGO Amnesty International published in 2017 refers to “the executions of thousands of people” organized “discreetly and methodically” by the Syrian government. The story purely evokes a human “extermination”. “Many other people detained at Saydnaya military prison were killed after being repeatedly tortured,” said the human rights organization.
In the columns of WorldHamed Al-Zawid, a 39-year-old taxi driver, indicates that he made two stays in Saydnaya, in 2017 and then 2022 for insulting the army. He first remembers having “been tortured and beaten, each time, during the interrogations which followed (his) arrest”, even before his transfer to prison. The detainees were “tortured with iron bars and electric cables, the regime’s executioners persisted in breaking body and soul until death ensued”, specifies the media. While barbarity seems to have no limits, “we emasculated children aged 13, the Saydnaya prison in Syria was a human butchery”, adds Claude Moniquet, intelligence specialist on CNEWS this Tuesday, December 10
The “salting rooms”, typical of Saydnaya prison
Former prisoners, again according to the ADMSP report, say they saw hanging rooms in groups and rooms filled with salt nicknamed “salting rooms”, used to store corpses before burying them in mass graves. A common practice in the west wing of Saydnaya. Still for Le Monde, Hamed Al-Zawid remembers “bodies dissolved by chemicals. Deprivation of food, water and medical care was widespread”, we can read. “Saydnaya prison was a tool to maintain power, a tool of terror,” analyzes Majd al-Dik, a Syrian opponent who took refuge in France for RFI.
“Violently beaten for two or three hours” before hanging
The conditions of detention in Saydnaya prison were appalling. It was possible to find up to nine prisoners in a four square meter cell. In addition, it would have at times accommodated up to 20,000 detainees according to Amnesty International, although it was designed to house a maximum of 5,000 individuals. Between 2011 and 2015, dozens of executions by hanging were carried out every week. Amnesty International describes this prison as a “human slaughterhouse”. Hangings which, according to the NGO, followed a very particular rite, she also mentions “mass hangings”.
Before the hanging, the victims were sentenced to death in a “trial” before a military tribunal. The authorities called this hanging day “the holiday.” “The detainees concerned are assured that they will be transferred to a civilian prison. Instead, they are taken to a cell located in the basement of the red building, where they are violently beaten for two or three hours” , the report says. “Then, in the middle of the night, blindfolded, they are transferred to the white building, in delivery trucks or minibuses. They are then taken to a room in the basement, where they are hanged. One or two times a week, between 20 and 50 people are executed by hanging”, continues the organization. Before a final journey, for everyone, towards the same direction, the false commune.